New Report: The GOP Government Shutdown by the Numbers

The Office of Management & Budget just released a new report with the impacts and economic costs of the GOP government shutdown and according to the report, the 16 day Republican shutdown cost us big. Here are couple of the “low-lights” from the Report:

Disrupted our Economic Growth:

“Independent forecasters estimate that the shutdown will lower fourth quarter real GDP growth by 0.2-0.6 percentage points, or $2-$6 billion in lost output.”

Hurt Federal Employees:

“During the 16-day shutdown, Federal government employees were furloughed for a combinedtotal of 6.6 million days, more than during any previous Federal government shutdown. Employees not on the job could not conduct food, product, and workplace safety inspections; prepare for flu season or monitor other public health issues; process tax refunds or respond to taxpayer questions; or provide numerous other services important to the general public and the economy. “One way to quantify the cost of Federal employee furloughs is in terms of payroll costs for furloughed employee pay --- costs the Federal government incurred for services that could not be performed. We estimate that the total cost of pay for furloughed Federalemployees during the period of the shutdown is roughly $2.0 billion.2 Total compensationcosts, including benefits, are about 30 percent larger, in the range of $2.5 billion."

Adversely Impacted Programs and Services for American Families:

“Millions of Americans were impacted by the shutdown, due to furloughs of Federal employees, reduced services for the public, and delays in payments to Federal grantees, States, localities, contractors, and individuals. For example, the shutdown:

Stalled weekly progress in reducing the backlog of veterans’ disability claims, which was previously being reduced at a rate of almost 20,000 claims per week.

Delayed almost $4 billion in tax refunds and will delay the start of the 2014 tax filing season by up to two weeks.

Prevented hundreds of patients from enrolling in National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinical trials.

Forced Head Start grantees serving nearly 6,300 children to close their centers for up to nine days (before re-opening with the help of private philanthropists or their state).

Delayed home loan decisions for 8,000 rural families.

Led the FDA to delay nearly 500 food and feed domestic inspections and roughly 355 food safety inspections under State contracts. These routine inspections enable FDA to determine compliance with law and ensure that unsanitary conditions and practices that may result in foodborne illness are addressed.

Delayed workshops for 1,400 military service members to help them transition to civilian life and employment.”

Unfortunately these are only a few of the impacts our economy, federal employees and families had to endure after the Republican obsession to defund, delay or repeal the Affordable Care Act led to the 2nd longest GOP government shutdown in our nation’s history. As we pick up the GOP shutdown pieces, let’s hope these facts will deter House Republicans from going down this road again.